Summer Solstice in Alaska
We celebrated the Summer Solstice in Alaska!
After crossing the Top of the World Highway and entering into Alaska, we stopped for one night in the small community of Tok. Basically the gateway in and out of Alaska, everyone making the drive up from the lower 48 states passe through Tok. We welcomed the paved roads of Highway 2 out of Tok and headed northwest.
It was Christmas in June in North Pole, Alaska. This town embraces its name with street light poles striped like candy canes, Santa’s workshop, and home of Santa’s reindeer. We were able to mingle about with the reindeer, feeding and petting them. We learned they are only able to fly when Santa provided special food on Christmas Eve. And of course, the obligatory photo with Santa was taken.
Alaska Road Trip Progress:
Shepherdsville, KY to Nenana, Alaska
45 Days (5/9/25 to 6/22/25)
6,054 miles
We continued on to Fairbanks, experiencing the luxuries of “big city” life, like our first Walmart in a couple weeks. A guided birding hike at Creamers Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge resulted in seeing a few birds like Sandhill Cranes, and flocks of the infamous Alaska mosquitos.
“The greatest adventure is what lies ahead. Each day brings new possibilities for exploration and discovery.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
Hoping to see the Fairbanks City 142 Magic bus from Into the Wild, we visited the The University of Alaska Museum of the North. The bus has been removed from the wilderness where Chris McCandless spent his last days, and meticulously restored and preserved. However, the bus is awaiting a proper enclosure for display and is tucked away in a secret location pending the final review later this year.
The Summer Solstice is celebrated in Fairbanks. And there is no missing it – quite literally Land of the Midnight Sun. Fairbanks is a mere 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle and sunset occurs about 1am with sunrise following shortly after at about 3am. Those two hours between are not dark, just twilight immediately transitioning from dusk to dawn.
Summer Solstice in Alaska
We boondocked at Pioneer Village for our Summer Solstice in Alaska experience, which just happens to be the finish line for the Midnight Sun Run. A 10k fun run with many participants wearing costumes, starts at 10pm and the after party continues well after midnight, all in the daylight.
Also is the Midnight Sun Baseball Games where no stadium lights are required with sufficient daylight all night for the college summer league to play baseball. The Midnight Sun Festival rounded out our Summer Solstice in Alaska complete with food trucks and vendor tents with all kinds of products.
After seeing and learning about something only through news reports, photos and magazines (and now the internet), I find it fascinating to see it with my own eyes. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline was once of those must-see items. Traversing 800 miles across Alaska, the pipeline was constructed in the 1970’s to transport crude oil from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope and ends at the Port of Valdez.
Thunderstorms rolled through central Alaska on June 19th a couple days before the Summer Solstice in Alaska, and the lightning sparked numerous wildfires across the state. We saw Super Scoopers airplanes shuttling water back and forth over Fairbanks, and the smoke from the fires rolled through Fairbanks creating a slightly irritating haze.
Ready to put city life in the rear view mirror and venture into the grandeur of the beautiful mountains once again, we set off to continue our journey on the Parks Highway.
Only made it 50 miles out of Fairbanks and once again we encountered road closures. This time for the 26,000 acre Bear Creek fire that jumped across Parks Highway. We pulled into Nenana, a very small town that turned out to be a great little hidden treasure for an impromptu stop. There were several gift shops, including an old Railroad Station converted into a gift shop.
And we learned all about the Nenana Ice Classic, a lottery to predict when the ice on the Tanana River will break up. Before highways and bridges, communities awaited the spring break up of the frozen river allowing much needed supplies to arrive via boat.
A large steel tripod is placed on the frozen Tanana River and connected to a clock. Every year since 1917, a lottery has been held with people guessing the day, hour and minute of the official ice break up. I went with an early Spring guess – April 7, 2026 at 5:17pm. Hopefully, I will be headed back to Nenana in the Spring to collect my winnings!
Meanwhile, we await news on when the Parks Highway will once again open, allowing us to progress south towards Denali.